The invention relates to an electromotive furniture drive for adjusting at least one movable component of a piece of furniture.
As a rule, such electromotive furniture drives require no maintenance. However, they are subjected to a certain amount of wear during their use. In individual cases, particularly after an extended use, this wear can cause an impairment of functions if a component, for example, the manual operating device, no longer or only to a limited extent has or carries out a desired function as a result of excessively frequent use. Under certain circumstances, such an impairment of functions may involve the function of the entire electromotive furniture drive because the user cannot easily recognize in such a case which one of the components has a defect. A complete system will therefore be exchanged although only one component would have had to be exchanged. This is a disadvantage resulting in corresponding costs with respect to shipment and checking.
One known solution is that electromotive furniture drives, particularly for seating furniture, have been equipped with a visual indicating system, which visually signals the action of voltage upon the respective motor. By means of this device, the user can recognize, for example, by the lighting-up of an indicator light in his operating device, whether a signal is emitted during the operation. By means of light sources of another light in the motor line, the user can recognize, in this case, whether this motor line is also supplied with voltage during the operation. This permits a detection of a defective component in a certain manner.
This construction has been successful. However, a clear limitation for the monitoring of the individual components of the electromotive furniture drive is disadvantageous because, by means of this above-mentioned construction, only the function of the respective electric motor can be checked if the operating device is functioning. In the case of a defective operating device, further investigations with respect to defective components are impossible.
The present system creates an electromotive furniture drive having an analyzing device which no longer has the above-mentioned disadvantages and the corresponding analyzing device.
The present system creates an electromotive furniture drive with an analyzing device which has an actuating element.
In this manner, a user is capable of immediately determining, by the simple actuation of the analyzing device, which one of the components has a defect. This becomes possible irrespective of which components are defective.
In at least one embodiment, the analyzing device is connected down stream of the power supply unit. Since the involved motors are so-called low-voltage motors, the power supply unit may consist of at least of a transformer, which reduces the public electric supply system voltage to a voltage with a lower potential.
However, the power supply unit may also have an accumulator, a switched-mode power supply, a voltage transducer or a system-side power supply. In the latter case, the motors may be constructed as system-supplied motors. Furthermore, an input-side system clearing device, an output-side rectifier circuit for generating a direct current and/or an output-side control device having electromechanical switches may be assigned to the power supply unit. In this case, a control device has control paths coming from the manual operation and leading to the respective electric motor.
In at least one embodiment, at least one actuating element has the same function as at least one switching element included in the operating device included in the electromotive furniture drive. As a result, checking of the functionality of components of the drive advantageously becomes possible independently of defective components. In this case, an actuating element can be assigned to each switching element of the operating device. Alternatively, it is also conceivable that several switching elements may be assigned to the actuating element. When the actuating element is operated, a circuit is closed. This may, for example, provide at least one control path. Thus, the operation of the respective actuating element is equivalent to the operation of the switching element(s) of the operating device. Furthermore, a display, such as a visual display, may also be assigned to the power path, which display emits a light signal as soon as the power path is supplied with voltage. Thus, by operating the actuating element, the operator can check the functionality of one or more motors, the correct functioning of the power supply unit, of the control unit or of the branching unit and of the operating device independently of a possibly faulty component.
In this case, in which the control unit has power switching elements for switching a power path of the at least one electric motor, it is provided in an embodiment that the at least one actuating element is switched parallel to at least one switching element of the operating device. As a result, the function of the power switching elements of the control unit and of motors connected thereto can be easily checked without operation of the operating device. For checking the functionality of the operating device itself, the operating device is operated testing of the functionality of the other components, whereby, with the preceding positive checking of the corresponding components, it can easily be determined whether the defect is in the operating device.
At least one embodiment provides a control unit having a branching device, in which the analyzing device is integrated. In this case, the power switching elements are arranged in the operating device. This provides direct switching of the power path of the electric motor because the switches are then arranged in the power path. In this case, in which the at least one switching element of the operating device has a power switching element for switching the power path of the at least one electric motor, the control unit is constructed as a branching unit. In this alternative embodiment, the at least one actuating element in the analyzing device has a power switching element for interrupting the power path to the operating device and a power switching element for switching the power path to the at least one electric motor. This results in an expansion of the range of use of the analyzing device.
In at least one embodiment, the at least one analyzing device is a component of the at least one control unit. As a result, it is permitted that an electromotive furniture drive is equipped with an integrated analyzing device, which enables simple checking. Individual components, such as the transformer, the accumulator, the switched-mode power supply, the voltage transducer, the rectifier circuit, the analyzing device and the control device may be inserted in a common housing. Individual components or a selection of respective components may also be inserted in a common housing. In this case, the housing may be partially or completely filled, so that an insulating material can be cast around the components.
In at least one alternative embodiment, the at least one analyzing device is constructed to be mountable on the at least one control unit. In this manner, the analyzing device can be retrofitted. A temporary installation of the analyzing device is thereby also conceivable.
In at least one embodiment, at least one analyzing device has an evaluation unit, which permits a comfortable checking with a correspondingly simple display; automated checking is also conceivable.
In at least one embodiment, the analyzing device is electrically connected down stream of the power supply unit. This also advantageously permits the functional testing of this power supply unit. In this case, the analyzing device has its own power supply, for example, a battery, whereby it functions advantageously independent of the power supply unit.
An analyzing device having at least one actuating element for testing the function of an electromotive furniture drive and at least one its components are constructed such that the analyzing device has at least one signaling element. In this case, the at least one actuating element has the same functionality of at least one switching element of the operating device of the electromotive drive, thereby allowing functionality testing which is close to reality.
In at least one embodiment, the analyzing device can be built onto the electromotive drive or can be installed in the electromotive drive. This results in a broad usage range of the analyzing device.
The device will be explained by the following description of preferred embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.